Is your business haunted by an army of ghost and zombie assets? These unseen assets could be disrupting your facilities management (FM) operations and haunting your bottom line. Here's how you can stop them.
What’s a ghost asset?
A ghost asset is a piece of equipment listed in your asset register that no longer exists. It may have been lost, stolen, or broken, but there's no record of its disappearance. Despite being absent, ghost assets can still cost your business in multiple ways:
- Insurance premiums: You may be paying to insure assets that no longer exist.
- Operational inefficiencies: Missing assets can hurt productivity.
- Compliance risks: Fines or breaches may occur because missing assets aren't where they should be.
What’s a zombie asset?
A zombie asset is the opposite of a ghost asset. It exists on your premises but isn’t recorded in your asset register. For example, it could be an asset that was part of a trade-in deal but never claimed back, or an item like a desk that has been split into two.
Zombie assets can negatively impact your business by causing:
- Under-insurance: Assets that aren’t recorded aren’t properly insured.
- Inaccurate depreciation: Assets won’t be factored into depreciation assessments, skewing financial records.
- Unnecessary replacement costs: Under-maintained zombie assets can fail unexpectedly
Ghost assets vs zombie assets - know your enemy
How have we got here?
As these figures show, many businesses find it hard to consistently document the details of the assets they acquire and even harder to ensure they’re accurately tracking their movements over time.
Source: Michael N. Day and Stephen Talbot, Fixed Asset Management White Paper
5 reasons your asset records don’t match reality
If you're managing assets with pen and paper - or even a shared spreadsheet - your records probably don’t match reality. New assets might get logged, but without proper digital control over your record keeping - the chances are they won’t be accurate for long.
- Without centralised asset control, important details about an asset can be omitted, records can be patchily updated and easily overwritten.
- As equipment breaks down, emergency decisions are made, assets are often moved, disposed of or replaced without due process.
- Engineers working on the fly without mobile tools to record activity can easily forget to record their activity and lose track of what they have done.
- You can’t track theft or loss in real time. Without GPS tracking, equipment illicitly removed or tucked away in dark corners may never be seen again.
- Without regular auditing you can be unaware that equipment is missing or broken
The result can be an entire army of ghost and zombie assets sucking up your money, maintenance resource and energy, and risking compliance.
As these figures show, many businesses find it hard to consistently document the details of the assets they acquire and even harder to ensure they’re accurately tracking their movements over time.
Time for an exorcism?
So, how can you rid yourself of your zombies and ghosts?
Using an improvised digital solution by stitching together spreadsheets and email is not the solution. It risks the integrity of all your data in an uncontrolled digital mess.
To ensure uniformity choose a purpose built system that is updatable and accessible - with effective data control at its core.
Set up an electronic asset register with a CAFM system
Creating a digital asset register within a CAFM system is the first step to eliminating ghost or zombie assets. It ensure all assets are digitally recorded in one place, properly labelled, and accounted for on-site.
A decent asset management system should allow you to:
- Generate unique serial numbers for each asset
- Create scannable barcodes or digital tags linked to each asset's record
If importing existing data, the system should automatically generate QR codes for each asset, allowing you to physically tag them on-site. This process helps uncover ghost assets, providing a clean, accurate register. A well-designed system also visually links assets to locations, mapping them to building plans for a real-time overview.
Efficient asset register management
The right system will make adding new assets and keeping records updated straightforward by enabling:
- Mobile or tablet-based asset creation and updates
- Asset photos for easier identification
- Cloning asset details quickly
- Easy movement of assets within the site hierarchy
Integrated with a CAFM system, the register can trigger workflows that direct engineers to the precise asset locations for:
- Callout responses
- Audits
- Maintenance
- Compliance checks
Engineers can scan QR codes on arrival, updating records to reflect work done, whether an asset is removed, temporarily replaced, or scheduled for a permanent fix. This ensures records remain accurate, with necessary follow-up actions triggered automatically.
Five key steps to eliminate the phantoms of your operations
1. Implement a digital asset register: Ensure each asset is uniquely tagged and identifiable with scannable barcodes.
2. Conduct regular audits: Frequent audits help identify and resolve discrepancies, reconciling physical assets with digital records.
3. Train staff: Educate employees on the importance of precise record-keeping for acquisitions, movements, and disposals.
4. Use integrated tools: Solutions like Expansive FM streamline asset tracking, depreciation, and compliance reporting.
5. Establish clear processes: Define clear procedures for documenting all asset changes to maintain accurate records.
Digitising asset management within a CAFM system will help you detect the ghost and zombie assets that pop up and haunt your system. And effective asset management tools will help you prevent them materialising again in the future.
Editor's note: this post was originally published in November 2021, and republished in October 2024 for accuracy.
